American Gluttony

First, an apology for not writing to you all for about a week. I have a few reasons for this: a) i´m having a great time b) I´m busy so I don´t have a lot of down time c) I use Eduardo´s computer and I don´t like to dominate it for more than an hour at a time, and unfortunately I only have time to tend to personal emails.

I´m going to write about this after a request by my dad. He said that I should blog about a conversation plus observation I´ve had in the time I´ve been here. I mostly came to this realization as Tia and I chatted at night, tea in hand, about materialism. But what was shocking to me is that she spoke about her struggle with materialism in the same way that I do. She says that she looks around her house thinking about all of the stuff she has. Far more than she needs. She, by herself, fills the little two bedroom house with her things. Many of them being her mothers that she inherited when babunha passed away. She says that she thinks it would be hard to house a second person because she stores too much stuff in that room, but yet, she says, she always is looking around for more and more things. A new oven, reforming the main wall in her house to make a great room with the kitchen and living area, more dishes. but she also says that she doesn´t need the microwave she has, or the air conditioner, or the 3 sets of dishes, or the tv, the list goes on and on. But yet, when I look at her house I think, " if only my life could be this simple". We make food on a wood stove almost everyday, which is also our only source of heat on cold winter days, she only has a tv... no vcr, no dvd player. We usually speak in silence as she only has a little black and white tv/radio in her kitchen that gets bad reception. She drives a 1960 bug, that I could walk fast than most of the time. But yet HER life is so materialistic.

I don´t know how to express this imbalance I feel when I think that she feels that she is materialistic in the same way that I am. I have a crazy amount of things. most of which I don´t need. I have a computer, a TV, a ghetto nintendo, more clothes than I can fit in my closet. And what is even more puzzeling to me is that I have been living off of the few things that I have here for 3 months without any problem. Even here I feel like I have too many things... and in Ijui all I brought with me was 3 pairs of jeans, 5 tshirts and 3 sweaters, my bible, and mere christianity, which I´ve given away at this point.

I wish I could bring a part of this life back with me. This simple, plain and content life. But I know that when I return I will be overcome with business all over again. Lets hope that I figure out a way to bring some of this back with me, and not get caught up in it the american lifestyle too easily.

APAE and portuguese lessons

I had my first day of volunteering at APAE, the special needs school, yesterday. My class is small with only 3 kids every day because they only have one teacher. They have a total of 7 kids in the class, and they circulate so they all come to class at least 2 times a week. I´m going back today to meet all of the other kids and therefore decide what days I want to go back. Really though, I like the kids in other classes more. We went to another class to have singing time together and there was this adorable downs girl who wanted all of my attention and when I gave attention to other kids she would get jealous and either hit some kid or wedge herself in somehow. There was another little boy named Duda that was really scared of climbing around on the monkey bars, but would do it all by himself if he knew i was watching him and close by. He was also cute because he spoke really clearly and was so preocupied with keeping me close by that he would always look over at me and say "I need you to do this with me" and so basically I just had to keep an eye on him and let him know i was there by lightly touching his back or something. It was a little frustrating though, because the teachers weren´t really helping facilitate play that much, and I felt like I was the one working far more than the teachers. Nevertheless, I had a great time, and the teachers are all ears for hearing new ideas and songs that they want to translate into portuguese. We´ll see how it goes.

I also just had my first "portuguese lesson"... and it went well. I think its going to help just to have someone sit with me and organize my thoughts about the language and have insight from someone who speaks portuguese and also english to help drive away any doubts. Its also going to help me to motivate myself to really focus on my word choice, memorization of tenses, etc.

Anyways, I should go because its almost noon and tia likes to have lunch right at noon...

ate logo,
Ana

random fun stuff

So I just sat in on one of Eduardos classes, and one of his students (who apparently her aunt is good friends with Tia) invited me to lunch on saturday to practice english and know her family better. I think it will be really fun to know another family better. And it also feels really good to be wanted and have people excited to have me here.

Secondly, the college newspaper is going to interview me on friday to find out what its like to be a college student in america. They want to know a little about me, what life is like there as well as how school works. I´m going to have to prepare with new words in portuguese if I´m going to express myself correctly, but all for the better.

Anyways, just thought I´d let you know of my day to day activities.

i REALLY like Ijui

So its been 3 days now, and I really really like it here. Sure, I´m hanging out with my 69 year old aunt all the time (I found out that her 70th birthday is next month), but as long as I get used to waking up early with her and going to bed early with her I think it will be just fine.

Yesterday we spent most of the day doing church activities. Her church is small, they have an african pastor which is fun seeing how there are only about 4 black people in the church, him and his two kids being three of them (his wife is white). But it was fun being around the church community, praying, singing, meeting people.

I met up with Eduardo again, the guy that we met last time who owns an english school here. He is my official connection to the internet and a break from speaking portuguese. He asked me to come in and chat with some of his students and I´m gladly taking him up on his offer. Its fun to have people here outside of my family that I know I can hang out with and have friends... much better than in porto belo where my only friends are really Jorge, Vania, Dona Zilda, and Marcos...

Lastly, I´m going to start volunteering at a special needs school 3 afternoons a week with the 5-6 year olds. There are only 7 in the class and i´m basically going to be the teacher´s side kick. I think its going to be really fun. They want me to help out with activities and make up some of my own. I have some ideas, but I want to wait to see how class is structured before I come in with my own notions.

Anyways, that´s it. Just watching the world cup, enjoying my new city, tia, and other people around. I´m really excited for the soccer game (Brasil vs. Croatia) tomorrow. Officially not rooting for USA anymore now that they lost 3-0 to the Czech Republic... and always rooting against Argentina. Life couldn´t get much better!

I should have brought long underwear!

Its so cold here! I don´t think it is actually that frigid, but the fact that people don´t have central heating means that you are cold all the time! For what its worth though, tia is teaching me how to knit socks, so in 4-5 days I should have a comfy pair to keep my tosies warm!

on another note... the best story of the day (11/6/06) was tia telling me about the one time she lied. It was when she was about 7 and she was at home alone with Gregorio. They took the yoke of a plow and turned it into a swing off a tree. She pushed Gregorio on it really hard and he fell and hurt himself badly. She took him back in the house and after he felt better they went back out, got the swing and put it back where they fund it. When her dad got home, he tried to use the yke but it was mysteriously bent, so he asked Anna and Gregorio what happened, they denied it and got a spanking for lieing. So she claims that she never lied again after that. I don´t know how true the never part is... but the more stories the better :)

this is what really matters...

...sitting for countless hours with tia just talking. Getting to know her and my family through stories. And not even stories about her or our family, but stories that reflect her character and ultimately her heart that is full of God´s love and an ache of what christ wants for this world expressed in what she wants for her town and community.

(10/6/06) Today it was RAINY!!! it rained all day, almost without stopping. And when it stopped and we thought it OK to go out it would start again, so, consequently, we stayed in all day literally, waiting for the rain to pass. We watched 3 soccer games; taking breaks to eat, but even with such a laid back day, I am thankful for it. Being reminded of God´s faithfullness as she speaks of his faithfulness in the life of her friends that ultimately reflects his faithfulness in her life.

She told me about friends who were in horrific accidents who were healed miraculously, and also about her feelings on the death of Baba, her siblings and parents. How she said she´s never angry with God, that he has his reasons and he´s always faithful. To go through such loss and not be angry or upset -- it speaks a lot to her strength as a person, her faith and trust in God and her ability to accept normal events in life, however tragic or hard.

She told me about her childhood and about her friendship with her brothers, Gregorio and Paulo. About how baba and tia lydia got married early and it was the three of them at home for a long time. How the three of them used to sing together at church, how she regrets never recording any of it, especially now that it won´t ever happen again.

We talked about a lot of other things, she also said to enjoy Blake as much as possible, to seize the morment and never miss out on an opportunity to share your faith or help someone. She told me this through the story of the last day that my great grandmother was alive. How Babunha and her went to a friends house to help her out because she was sick, and she hadn´t been at church for a while and babunha was the one to ask her to come to church sometime, that its never too late to start over again. The next day babunha died suddenly... but tia was and is so happy that she was so lucid until the very last day, even to draw people to christ.

we also talked about materialism and racism and how much we don´t like Argentina (Go Brasil!), how much she likes to root for the underdog as we cheered on the Ivory Coast to beat argentina. I hope that in this time with her I can recieve some of her wisdom. Wisdom that can only be learned over a lifetime. You can learn so much from people who have been there, I hope I can learn life lessons in these next few weeks that are unforgetable.

Tevemos um ladrão!

I keep on forgetting to mention this because of all of the other excitement that has been going on here with coming back and then leaving again. But the friday before we came back to Porto Belo a robber broke into the house and stole my guitar (minus my capo which was clamped onto the neck... what and idiot of a robber!), my new brasil zip up hoodie (which I´ve already replaced), and a pair of jeans, along with the house´s DVD player, and Jorge´s MP3 player (which he found outside down the street unscathed).

I guess I haven´t said anything because he took pretty insignificant stuff to me... easily replaceable and nothing of great sentimental value... which he easily could have done. What I don´t get is how does a robber go into my closet, take my jeans and a sweatshirt but not all of my jewelery that is just sitting in a little box next to my clothes? It would have taken him about 15 seconds to gather it all up and put the lid on and he would have had the necklace my dad gave me as a 13th birthday present, all of my earrings, my rings, EVERYTHING. So thankfully... all he took was my guitar, some jeans and a sweatshirt. Jorge already got me a new guitar, which I ended up paying $50 for, and jeans are super cheap here... I´ll be able to find new, better ones for a fraction of the cost as home.

But there you have it... we had a robber... and apparently this same guy has been going at it every friday night for the past two weeks... always taking DVD players and other random trinkets from 4 houses so far. Tomorrow night they are hiring a guard to stay up and freak anyone out that might be snooping around. Hope it works...

gearing up for the world cup

I have to say that I am really amazed at how much Brazil is gearing up for the copo do mundo. I was envisioning something like Seattle when the Hawks made it to the Superbowl, but they really do take it to the next level. Yellow, green and blue blankets the whole town, as well as the rest of brazil based on what I´ve seen on the news that constantly reports how excited the people of brazil are for it. Ryan and I even observed an intersection being painted with a brazilian flag and the words "Rumo a Hexa" surrounding it. Everyone is getting convinced that this is our chance for a 6th world cup championship. Classrooms are decorated with flags and streamers, billboards are up just to "Torce Brasil" (torce means to twist literally, but really root for or cheer in slang) and even I am getting really into it! I got my brazil zip up hoodie, my brazil earrings, and now i´m shooting for brazil shoes (like green and yellow sneakers) and a cool tshirt. I´m planning to go all out for possibly my one chance of cheering for brasil in brasil. Its hard to imagine that this is how crazy it is getting before the cup even starts... I´m looking forward to seeing how much better it gets as big games come our way and everyone is on the edge of their seats.

VIVA BRASIL!
Ana

the new game plan

Hey everyone,

I´m pleased to announce that I finally am going to Ijui for a few weeks. I just bought my bus ticket today. It officially takes almost as long to get there by bus as it would take me to get back home to Seattle, but its totally worth it. I will be leaving thursday night at 8:00 and arriving in Ijui at 8:30 the next morning. The game plan is to buy some sleeping pills the day before, and pop a few when its time to hit the sack. I think it will work to give me at least a solid chunk of sleep on the way.

I´m planning on staying with my Tia Ana for the majority of the time, with planned trips to Santa Rosa to hang out with Leticia and other family as well as go to Porto Alegre to see more relatives. All in all, I think i´ll be heading back to Porto Belo towards the end of June and then I´ll be off and running again: I want to catch the final of the world cup with my family in Ponta Grossa... since they are insane and (assuming that brazil is in it) the party will be better with them.

I just got back from an evening of fishing with my uncle, the world famous Leandro and another guy we call Chico. It was pretty fun minus the lack of catching anything.

abraços,
Ana

indescribable

I got online today after Ryan left with big plans to write out a long blog right after I went through pictures and reminiced a little bit. Now that i´ve gone through them all, however, I feel like I don´t have it in me to adequately express the emmense beauty and awe-inspiring views and experiences I´ve seen, felt and heard. As I sit here, trying to think of a tangible way to give you a taste of this, I realize that nothing I can do, within the limits of this blog, will allow me to even minutely show you how awesome this place is.

So sadly, the typical Ana will not be her typical self and go on and on and on about everything she´s done. She is going to hold it all in her, journal about it in a real book, and when she comes home, you can see it through her pictures, through her voice, through her emotion. Its worth waiting a month and a half for it, trust me.

in the mean time, I´m attempting to post some photos on my flickr account. If it manages to go up, you´ll have a few pictures to see where i´ve been.

love you all,
Ana

Aldino and the foz do iguaçu

well guys, foz do iguaçu was a blast... the cataratas were amazing and we were very fortunate to have an amazing tour guide from the moment we arrived to the moment we left.

we came into foz do iguaçu at 1:00 am on the 30th of may without knowing if we had a hotel or if we were going to be bumming around the streets for a night. this, however, completely changed when we were picked up by a very nice taxi driver named Aldino. He asked us where we wanted to go and also asked if we had reservations there or not. I said that we kinda did since i had emailed a hotel telling them that we would be coming in, but he offered to take us to a hotel that he said was better and would be cheaper as well. We took him up on his offer and as we were driving, he also offered to take us around the falls for the day. He would pick us up at 8:40 in the morning, take us to the brazil side, the argentine side and then drive us back to the hotel in the evening for a mere R$150. Since it was 1 in the morning and this seemed like a much better deal than waking up, having breakfast and a late start that would have turned into a day of confusion, we took him up on his offer.

Aldino turned out to be priceless. Not only did he drive us around, but he told us what he knew of the falls, walked us around the parks, got us across the border without waiting in lines, set up a boat trip to the `garganta do diablo´ for us, and was full of helpful information to make the day better.

And what a day we had! The falls were marvelous! I can´t express in words how amazingly powerful they are but yet completely calming and awe-inspring. You have to come here and hear and see and feel for yourself, because the falls are larger and more magnificent than you can imagine.

The boat ride was crazy. Although we didn´t actually make it to the garganta do diablo, we did have a wild ride that included our "baptism into the falls". We were DRENCHED! but it was totally worth every minute of this up close and personal experience with such a gigantic natural wonder.

we even had some fun climbing past a "no passar" sign to follow the advice of a girl who said that there were falls we could swim in and a rusty boat that was torn up just out of view that was really easy to get to. we ran into a group of new yorkers and aussies that were adventuresome and interesting. It was fun listening to them reminice about their experiences as we reminiced of ours.

I have to say that anyone who comes down with me or alone in the future has to come to the falls, and has to have Aldino as your guide. He even has a notebook where every person he took to the falls wrote a thank you to him. I´ve never seen so many nationalities being grateful to one person... german, argentinian, brazilian, american, english, japonese, arabic, korean and more... all in this notebook filled with memories of good times and gratitude. I felt honored to have ridden in his cab, and the friendship we made over the day and a half really makes me want to make a special trip just to see him.

(he also took us to the itaipu dam... the largest dam in the world... the next day as well as the border of agentina, paraguay and brazil the next day... as well as a fantastic fish restaurant for lunch before he dropped us off at the airport...he was literally with us every step of the way, and I don´t think we could have done it as flawlessly without him)